ANASTASIS
A TREATISE
ON THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD
AT
The APPEARING OF CHRIST
With
reference to the nature of the body
when it first
emerges from the grave
BY JOHN THOMAS, M.D.
Author, of “Elpis
Exposition oft/se Apocalyj4e”;
and other works.
“There shall be a RESURRECTION OF
DEAD Ones, both of just and unjust
ones.”—(Paul.)
“And as Paul reasoned of
righteousness, temperance, and the Jt~DGNENT TO COME, Felix
trembled.”—(Acrs xxiv. 25.)
Why should It be thought a
thing Incredible with you, that the
Deity should raise the
dead? “—(PAUL
To AGRIPPA.)
Birmingham:
“THE CHRISTADELPHIAN”, 21,
SPARKHILL, 11.
1947.
I
Note most of the Greek characters are not recognized by the scanner and are represented by (xxxxxxx)
ANASTASIS.
RESURRECTION and Aeon
-JUDGMENT are the subject-matter of these pages.
Etymologically, resurrection is a rising again, from the Latin word resurgo. In the Greek original of the New Testament it is
represented by the noun dvdoruot;, as
in Acts xxiv. 15, Where Paul, in his address to Felix, declares that he
entertains the hope that there shall be a resurrection of dead ones, both of
just ones and also of unjust ones ‘‘. This word anastasis signifies a rising
up, a standing up from dviorijun, to
stand up, or again, to cause to rise, &c. The word resurrection occurs about forty times in the English testament, but
not once in the Old Testament, though the subject
is amply set forth in the Law and the Prophets ‘‘, only in other terms.
Thus, in Luke xx., the
Great Teacher, in his argument against time Sadducees who deny that there is
any resurrection “, declares that MOSES taught it in the Law and cites from his
book of Exodus iii. 6, in proof that he did so. The words of ,JESUS are these :
Now that the dead ones are reared up (xxxx),
Moses also showed at the bush, when he called Yahweh the Elohim of Abraham,
and the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of
Jacob. For DE1TY is not (afffirmable) of dead ones, but of living ones, for
they all live to Him’. This is unquestionable proof that Moses taught the
resurrection of some from among dead ones, although the word does not occur in
his writings. The phrase Yahweh Elohim’
.‘Abraham implies this: for Yahweh is the name of the Eternal Spirit, and Elohim are powerful ones. .He who shall be the powerful ones of
Abraham is the plain English of Moses’ words. The Eternal Spirit, or Power,
manifested in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, necessitates their egersis and anastasis——-their rebuilding and standing up : for there can he no
such manifestation in unorganized dust of the ground which was the then, and is
the now, condition of these fathers.. At present, they are merely historical characters, without any
existence, corporeal or incorporeal, in the universe of the Deity yet they all
live to Him “ in an indefinite present. I say indefinite, because Jesus, in his
discourse with the Sadducees, , did not define the time of their resurrection,
but simply affirmed they all live to Him ‘‘. But, can it be inferred when ? Truly
yes when he becomes their Elohim
Page 3
so that, as Paul says, “ Deity, who makes the
dead ones living, calls the things not existing, as though existing (Rom.iv.
17).
David, one of the
prophets, speaks copiously of resurrection in the Psalms. The word is not found
there, but the thing itself very frequently is. He treats of the resurrection
of his descendant, the Christ, from among the dead to the end that He may reign
King in
Thus the Scriptures
speak of the DEATH-STATE into which all go when they depart from among the
living. While “in death’’ they are
said to sleep. From this sleep some never awake which is equivalent to saying
that they are never the subject of resurrection. This is evident from Jer. Ii.
57, where, speaking of the princes, wise men, captains, rulers, and mighty ones
of Babylon, time Eternal Spirit saith ‘‘ they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake ‘‘ : and Isaiah speaking of
the same class, says, “ They are dead, they shall not live they are deceased, they shalt not rise therefore, hast Thou
visited and destroyed them and made all
their memory to perish ‘‘ (xxvi.14) so that ‘‘ the man that wandereth out of
the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead ‘‘
(Prov’ xxi.16) : a decree of very
extensive application.
But all dead ones in
the grave shall not sleep the sleep of death perpetually. “ The wicked shall be
turned unto sheol, all the nations that forget God for the needy shall not
always be forgotten the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever ‘‘
(Psalm ix. 17-18). These poor and needy are those dead ones, who, while living,
“ obtained a good report “through that faith which is ‘‘the full assurance of
things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen “ (Heb. xi. 1, 39). These
are they styled by David in the Psalms the righteous, who shall flourish as the
palm tree the upright in their hearts the seed to be accounted to YAHWEH for a
generation the excellent in the earth, in whom is all His delight those who
regard His works and the operation of His hands His people His inheritance them
that reverence Him the blessed, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered, to whom Yahweh imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no
Page 4
guile ; the broken of heart and the contrite of
spirit ; they who shall inherit the earth and dwell therein for ever ; the
meek, who shall delight themselves with abundance of peace ; the saints, who
are preserved for the Olahm, and shall shout aloud for joy, when they execute
the judgments written ; the perfect, whose end is peace ; His lovers and His
friends ; the fellows of the King, and princes in all the earth ; those under
whose feet the peoples and nations are to be subdued; the Man styled by Paul
“the One Body “ ; the prisoners of Yahweh ; His servants, who take pleasure in
the stones of Zion ; the heavens who declare His righteousness those who keep
His covenant, and remember His commandments to do them ; the seed of Abraham
His servant, the children of Jacob His chosen ; the priests of Zion clothed
with salvation ; the kings of the earth, who shall sing in the ways of Yahweh.
These have been sleeping the sleep of death for ages; but, inasmuch as that
many of the things affirmed of them by the Eternal Spirit, are no part of the
estate of the poor and needy during their sojourn among the living, it follows
that, as not one jot or tittle of the divine word shall fail, by implication
David inculcates their resurrection to execute the judgments written against
the kings and nobles of the nations ; to take possession of the earth, and to
dwell therein for ever.
This, then, is the teaching
of the Old Testament scriptures that there shall be an awakening and standing
up of certain of the dead— not of the
dead universally ; and that, after this, there shall be judgment. But this
awakening from the sleep of death is not taught there simply by implication. It
is directly testified. In the book of Job, the most ancient section of the
word, the patriarch says, “ I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall
stand in the latter day upon the earth ; and, after I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet from out of
my flesh shall I see ELOAH ; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not a stranger
(xix. 25-27). This was the hope of those who held
the true faith in the days of Job, and of Moses. They expected to awake from
the sleep of death, and after the destruction of the body in Sheol ; and again
to be bodies of flesh capable of beholding the Redeemer: This was awaking to
renewed corporeal existence—a reorganization of their disintegrated remains
with renewed identity. This was awaking, coming, or springing forth, and
standing again, or resurrection.
Many passages of like
import might be adduced from the prophetic writings : but the limit assigned to
these pages will not allow of quotation. I will merely remark here that “the
poor and needy “, whom James so amply characterizes, “poor in the world, but
rich in faith “, while strangers and pilgrims among the living, are styled by
Isaiah, “ Yahweh’s dead ones “, and “ His dead body “.
Page 5
Concerning them, he says, “they shall live “,
“they shall arise “. They are to come forth from the dust of sheol; in which, having been reduced
thereto, they are considered as dwelling, as well as sleeping. Hence, the
Eternal Spirit, who makes them live and spring forth by His power, addresses
them prophetically in the words, “Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust “. They
must awake in order to sing, which implies previous reorganization—the
formation of their dust into bodies again; for dust cannot praise in song,
neither any that go down into the silence of “the land of forgetfulness “ (Psa.
xxx. 9 lxxxviii. 11-12 : cxv. 17).
In sheol all the elements are there ready for a synthetic operation to
be elaborated by him, who, while tabernacling in the flesh among the Jews,
said, “ I am the resurrection and the life “. He alone can perform the
wonderful and mighty synthesis— the reunion of the gaseous elements with the
dust, and their development into forms, the living images and likenesses of
those to whom the dust formerly belonged. This is resurrection—the reproduction
of a former intelligent being by almighty synthetic power, styled by Paul, “the
energy whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself” (Phil. iii. 21). He
who recombines these simple elements of the dead is THE WORD, in whom is life,
and by whom all things were made (John i. 3-4). This Word is the
Resurrection—the Eternal Spirit, “who only hath immortality, dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto “. His name is YAH, by which He is well
pleased to be extolled (Psa. lxviii. 4). He takes away men’s breath, and they
die, and return to their dust. He subjects them to analysis; and then at the
time appointed, He reverses the operation, in sending forth His spirit for their renewal (Psa. civ.
29-30). This is the formative or re-creative power of resurrection. The gases
and the (lust might all be mechanically and intimately combined; hut no image
and likeness of a previous entity would result. The power of the LIFE-WORD,
intelligently operative, is indispensable. This power sent forth by Deity, and
applied by Jesus (2 Cor. iv. 14), in its application, secretly and silently,
will synthesize the gases and the dust of sheol,
and from “the sides of the pit, wherein no water is “, and where no forms
exist, this formative power will evolve living men and women, who shall come
forth from the land of darkness, where the light is as darkness (Job x. 21-22),
like dew “from the womb of the dawn “. He, by whom this power is applied, may
well be styled “the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty Power, the Father of
Eternity “. What an astonishing evolution of living substantial intelligences
out of a few invisible elemental principles of nature It cannot be said that
they are created out of nothing, any more than such a creation could be
affirmed of the dew. The crude materials abound in sheol, where they would continue eternally in a formless condition, irrespective of
their natural affinities. These would
Page 6
never evolve them into previously existing men
and women still less would their elemental affinities, however strong,
reproduce beings of remote antiquity, with their consciousness of self in as
lively exercise as though they had only had a wink of sleep Nothing but the
wisdom and power of Omnipotence definitely applied, can accomplish so
extraordinary a result. The Sadducees utterly denied that such a thing was
either probable or possible ; but,
as Jesus said, “they erred, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of the
Deity “.
If they had understood Moses and the Prophets, and had had any
appreciation of the power by which all things had been created, and were
sustained, they would have been preserved from the fatal error of denying a
resurrection. It is this ignorance of the Scriptures in their signification,
that is the source of all the errors so variously and widely prevalent
respecting resurrection. Few have any rational conception of the process by
which living, previously-existing, self-conscious, intelligent forms, are
evolved from a few gaseous and earthly particles ; and almost as few understand the
nature of the forms, or living images, produced and the doctrinal
principles upon which, when reproduced, they attain to their full and final
development. Though Pharisaic in word, the religious world universally is
practically Sadducean. Its creeds confess a resurrection of all the dead ; while those who have received them
implicitly from their ancestors, hold the dogma of the heathen, which decrees
the existence in all human beings of a divine principle, styled by them “THE IMMORTAL SOUL “. This, they say, is “the thinking I “, the real, responsible man,
which was created in the image and likeness of the gods. At death, it is said,
a separation ensues between this soul and the body ; and, as both ancient and modern heathen, in their ethics,
distinguish between virtue and vice, for which there are rewards and
punishments in another world, they provide two separate regions for the reception
of the two several classes of immortal souls. The one country they style “ the Elysian Fields “, or “ Heaven beyond the realms of
time and space”; the other “Tartarus “, the kingdom of Pluto, or “Hell “. At death they send all who
please them to endless bliss in heaven ;
but their enemies to eternal torments in hell. Thus, logically,
resurrection, either to a blessed existence, or to punishment, is denied; for
if rewards and punishment are awarded at death, and have been enjoyed and
suffered incorporeally for thousands of years, resurrection, as scripturally
taught, is a needless superfluity, a mere encumbrance upon faith, and uselessly
perplexing to the minds of men.
But these traditions of
the heathen, which were early blended with the apostolic faith by “ men of perverse minds “, are utterly vain. By
whomsoever held, they make of none effect in him the words he may believe.
Without an awakening and coming forth
Page 7
from the dust of sheol, there are neither life, blessedness, nor punishment, for
those who are sleeping and dwelling there. Resurrection of body is
indispensable to either reward or punishment, for without resurrection, the
metaphorical sleepers and dwellers in the dust are nonentities, being without
bodies or parts—mere historical characters, whose “remains” are simple
elementary gases and particles of earth. Deny a resurrection, and all the
promises of the Deity to the fathers, which He has confirmed “by two immutable
things “,
His word and His existence, are reduced to “ cunningly-devised fables “. No resurrection, no
salvation—no” glory, honour, incorruptibility, and life “, in the kingdom of the Deity.
It will be easily
perceived, then, that resurrection is an important and indispensable element of
the beginning of the oracles of the Deity. A system of belief in which it is
not prominent, is a body without life; and can, therefore, impart none. Paul
exhibited resurrection and aeon-judgment as ingredients of “ the milk of the word” designed
for the nourishment and growth of babes (Heb. v. 12-13: vi. 1-2 ; I Pet. ii. 2). Hence, a man “wise in
his own conceit “,
who does not discern these elements of “the beginning of the word of the
Christ “,
must be in a very pulpy and puny state of mind. He is truly “unskillful
in the word of righteousness “, and incapable of digesting “ the strong meat “ of the mystery of the Christ,
which, in the pre-apostolic generations, was not made known to the sons of men
as Paul and his companions taught it (Eph. iii. 4-5) : for” strong meat
belongeth to them who are perfect (reAsiwv);
to those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both
good and evil “.
But they who would make a merit of not pretending to understand the
prophets, yet presumptuously mete out to others, who can read them with
intelligence, condemnation and repudiation, are not only the sickliest of
mortals, but well-nigh to the fate of thorns crackling under a pot.
But some, while they
confess that there will be resurrection, in the same breath in which they pray
you to “have patience with them, because they are thick-headed “, boisterously and positively
assert that on the dust of dead ones awakening to life, they spring forth from
their graves incorruptible and immortal; so that, manifestly, according to
them, Paul was not treating of body, but
simply of incorporeal dust, when he
says, “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality “.
This corruptible incorporeal dust must put on incorruption. But this
cannot be the apostle’s meaning; for the dust, instead of being corruptible,
has resisted corruption for thousands of years, as in the case of Abel,
Abraham, Daniel, and so forth; it would, therefore, be superfluous to put on a
quality it already has. No; Paul was speaking of body, not of incorporeal dust. It is, therefore, necessary
Page 8
that the dust be first formed into body in the
grave; so that body being evolved, there may be body to “put on” what may be appointed for it.
Paul’s saying, “This
corruptible must put on incorruption “, though it may, and does, apply to
living bodies existing at the resurrection, which will be changed or quickened,
without tasting death, cannot apply to bodies living contemporary with him; for
those bodies, instead of putting on incorruption,
put off everything, ran rapidly into
corruption, and ceased to be bodies at all. His argument clearly assumes the
existence of a body waiting to put on incorruption and immortality “, when the
fiat of its Creator shall be declared. This body, which springs forth from the
ground, as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth (Isa.
lxi. 11), is, doubtless, the body he styles ‘ a natural body in comparison with another body, which he terms” spiritual body
He gives “ the first man Adam “, before he
sinned, as the type of the one; and “the last Adam” when made “a quickening
spirit the type of the other. “The first man is out of the earth, of dust, xodc ; and such also will they be who
will be called upon to awake “ They
will be “be out of/he earth, of dust but
when they afterwards “put on incorruption “, in their incorruptible
investiture are “clothed upon with
their dwelling, which is from heaven .
Thus, the two bodies, the natural and the spiritual, are represented by Paul as
derived from two opposite regions, as remote the one from the other as the
earth and heaven ; vet both as intimately connected as cause and effect ; or as
the seed sown, and the body the Deity is pleased to give it.
But Paul says, “in the
last trumpet which shall sound, the dead ones shall be raised incorruptible “. So it reads in the Common Version;
and if the words be understood in the sense intended by the apostle, there
cannot be the least objection to it. He announced a truth, which was afterwards
apocalyptically represented to John in Patmos: that in the period symbolized by
the seventh trumpet the dead shall be
caused to exist incorruptible “. This is the import
of the word, rendered “ shall be raised “, in
this text. It includes the whole process of rebuilding
from the awakening to the quickening, when the subject of the finished
operation can shout aloud with joy, and exclaim “I am immortal! Hallelu Yah!
This will be seen in any lexicon under the word (eyeloa); among the definitions are “to
raise up, or again, to rebuild, to cause to exist
The raising of an edifice is not begun and
consummated in an instant. It is the pleasure of the Deity, who is “ the
builder of all things to execute His purposes with deliberation. He lays the foundation of “ the house, which is from
heaven “, in the dust. This foundation is the body which springs forth
therefrom; while the superimposed
Page 9
building is the
white robe of immortality, “ the house from heaven “, with which it is
arrayed, and in the panoply of which it dwells. Hence raising in this text, is not an instantaneous act, as though a body
shot forth from the dust incorruptible and immortal; but a process consisting
of divers successive stages. These are all developed in, or during, the
sounding of the last, or seventh, trumpet ; but the interval to elapse between
the beginning and the finishing of the process, is nowhere revealed. It will,
doubtless, be sufficiently long to afford scope for “the gathering unto Christ
“, and the judgment of His house, which is to follow. They are caused to exist when they come forth
from their graves; but they are not “ caused to exist incorruptible “, until they shall have been approved at His
tribunal, when the raising will be
complete.
Thus, from these
premises, it may be perceived that the raising of the righteous is the
exaltation of them from a lower to a higher nature. The lower nature is that
exhibited in Adam on the day of his formation. It was “very good “of its kind,
but not equal to the nature of the Elohim. This is the higher nature, and
styled by Paul the spiritual body. The lower nature is human: the higher,
divine. From the one to the other is an ascent
; and he who ascends from an earthly body to a heavenly, is said to have
been raised.
When spirit became
flesh in the evolution of Jesus from the substance of Mary, he is said to have
been “ made a little lower than the
angels “, whose nature he did not assume (Heb. ii. 9, 16). It is the inferior
nature of which resurrection, in its broadest sense, is affirmed. If Adam had
continued faithful and obedient, his “body of life” would have been raised to equality with the Elohistic
body by the transforming energy of spirit forth sent from Deity. His body of
life, just evolved from the dust, would have been clothed upon by a house from
heaven ; or, in other words, having been permitted to eat of the tree of life,
his body would have “put on incorruption and immortality.” But, in his case,
this was not permitted. It was reserved for the last Adam to illustrate in his
own person what would have been if the first had been faithful; and what will
be to all of his descendants who walk after the example of the last.
The resurrection, or
raising of Jesus from the lower nature with which he emerged from the tomb to
the divine nature, his “house from heaven “, the white robe of spirit in which
he was” taken up”,• supplies the deficiencies in the case of the first Adam ;
and exhibits to his brethren the stages of the raising process they have to
pass through before it can be said they
are like him (1 John iii. 2).
The first stage is the formation of their
dust after the image and likeness of the first Adam, which were Elohistic; and
then, being thus Elohistically formed, to be caused to exist by “the breath of
lives “ being breathed into their nostrils. By this process of formation and
inspiration they become BODIES OF LIFE—naphshoth
chaiyah.
Page
10
Before the inspiration of the breath of lives,
their condition answers to that of the lifeless body of Jesus in the tomb of
Joseph of Arimathea, when he deposited him there. In this parallel, they are naphshoth wait/i, “bodies of death “
such as Paul prayed to be delivered from in Rom. vii. 24. But when the breath
of “the spirit of life from Deity” enters into them, they awake “and stand upon
their feet “, bodies of life, styled by Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 44-45, “psychical
bodies” and “living souls “. This stage of the raising process is strikingly
illustrated in the resurrection of the witnesses apocalytically exhibited in
Rev. xi. 11. These were bodies of death during
three symbolic days and a half; but, as soon as spirit from Deity entered into
them they became subjects of egersis, or
awakening, and anastasis, or standing
up; after this, they ascended, and so, being clothed upon with power, their
raising was complete.
Having emerged from
SHEOL, from “the womb of the dawn “the second
stage of the process finds them, after the type of the first Adam,
“standing before the judgment-seat of Christ (Rom. xiv. 10), as the result of
their having been angelically “gathered together unto him” (Matt. xxiv. 31; 2
Thess. ii. 1). Adam, at the bar of Deity in Paradise, had arrived there through
probation, and emergence from a hiding place, whence he had been brought forth
by the voice of YAHWEH Elohim (Gen.
iii. 1-9) ; so with his descendants ; they arrive at the judgment-seat of
Christ through probation and emergence from sheol, in which they have been long
hid; and from which the voice of YAHWEH Elohim
brings them forth that “every one of them may give account of himself to
Deity” (Rom. xiv. 12). Had Adam been able to give a good account of himself in
probation, he would have been permitted to eat of the tree of lives, that,
eating, he might live for ever ; but he was self-condemned in the account he
rendered, so that he was sentenced to perpetual exclusion from Paradise, and to
“receive through the body for what he had done evil” (2 Cor. v. 10) ; which
evil is defined in the penalty attached to the law he had transgressed
according to the exposition thereof by the law-giver and judge, in the words,
“Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return ; and which, after a life of
labour and of sorrow, took effect A.M. 930, when he died, and, by corruption,
became dust again. Thus, “having sown to the flesh, of the flesh he reaped
corruption” ; as will all his descendants who elect to walk in his steps rather
than after the example of the last Adam (Gal. vi. 8).
Here the similitude
between the first Adam and his posterity ends. Those of them who “reap life
everlasting” are such as, after the example of the last Adam, have in their
probation, sown to the Spirit ; “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap “. When those who have sown to the Spirit appear at the judgment-
Page 11
seat of Christ, they will be able to show in the account
rendered; that the righteousness of the Mosaic law was fulfilled in them by
their walk after “the Spirit, which is the truth “, through which they
mortified the deeds of the body, and crucified it with its affections and lusts
(Rom. viii. 4, 13; Gal. v. 24). This was sowing to the Spirit. And who that has
been engaged in this work of faith and labour of love would dread to make his
appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ? They are gathered there as
hopeful expectants of a verdict justifying them before angels and the Father
who is in heaven (Matt. x. 32; Luke xii. 8-9) ; for the angels will he present
at this assize, and will be attentive observers, approving the just and
despising with ignominy those who loved the world and the things pertaining to
it, more than “the truth as it is in Jesus “. It can surely be only those whose
consciences are not void of offence toward God and men, who contemplate their
appearance in His presence with affright. They are, doubtless, conscious of
disaffection and disloyalty to the truth ; of not walking worthy of the
vocation wherewith they are called; of conformity to the world upon the things
of which their affections are placed, and of glorying in pursuits of which
they ought rather to be ashamed. Professors who are making for themselves a
record of this sort, have reason to be affrighted ; for, “ if any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him” ; and the world’s friends are
God’s enemies (1 John ii. 15 ; James iv. 4); hence, for such, the expectation
of standing before Christ in full angelic assize, is “ a certain fearful
looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the
adversaries” (Heb. x. 27). No marvel that they view this prospect with frantic
repugnance, and declaim against it as a senseless conceit. But, what is the use
of this? Bad words and rough speeches will not alter the predetermination of
Deity. If it be His purpose to demand account from every one, of himself,
before he confers upon him, through the Spirit, life everlasting, that purpose
will assuredly stand. And that it is His pleasure so to do, is emphatically and
explicitly taught in the word. Paul, who testifies it among others, did not
view it with dismay, although he says that evil as well as good is then to be
dispensed. He was conscious of having done well, and he knew that such would he
accepted (Gen. iv.
7). Therefore, in
view of the judgment, which made Felix tremble, he could joyfully exclaim, “ I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, will give me in that day “, when “He shall judge living
and dead ones at his appearing and kingdom” ; “and not to me only, but also to
all who love the appearing” (2 Tim. iv. 1, 8). Surely, they who are keeping the
faith, and earnestly desiring “the appearing of the glory of the great God and
Saviour Jesus Christ “, may
page 12
view the judgment of that day, now so close at
hand, as cheerily. I is only evil doers that have reason to b aid.
The consummation of the judgment of Christ’s
house indicates the epoch of the third
and last stage of the raising process. This crisis is the quickening, by which resurrection is perfected. The analogy is
found in nature, from which its divine Creator selects many processes and
principles, which He employs as figures to illustrate His teaching in the word.
Thus, in regard to corporeal regeneration,
in the process of developing an immortal being from the dust of sheol, the
terms expressive of the stages of what may be styled the spiritual gestation are conformed to the phenomena pertaining
to the natural. The same fact obtains in relation to moral regeneration, which must precede in probation, the corporeal
in the resurrection state. In the moral process “the New Man “is” begotten “, or conceived, when the
sinner perceives “ the truth as it is in Jesus”; and he is quickened unto a new
and independent life, when the truth works in him to will and to do the good pleasure of Deity. If he stop short of the quickening in moral
or in corporeal gestation, he is a mere abortion; but if in the moral, the
process is matured in a “faith that works by love and purifies the heart”. The immersed
believer is addressed in these words, to wit: : And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. He hath
quickened you together with Christ”
(Eph ii.1,5) It will be perceived by the
thoughtful, that there is necessarily a
marked interval between the moral conception and the quickening of the dead
in sin. An unquickened intelligent sinner is a theorist—a speculator in divine
thoughts, which have no moral influence over him; while a quickened sinner has
become circumcised of heart and ears, “the workmanship of Deity “, “created by
knowledge after his own image “ (Eph. ii. 10; Col. iii. 10).
The moral gustatory
order of development, I have said, is in strict conformity with the law of
nature. According to this, quickening usually occurs about eighteen weeks
after conception. During this interval, the bearer has no direct consciousness of the embryo forming within; but when
quickening occurs, the attention is strongly excited. Now, the English law
recognizes the cause of the phenomena of quickening to be, the acquisition of a life by which the faetus might live independent of
its bearer. This idea is probably correct ; and certainly exact enough to
illustrate the phenomena of the moral and corporeal generation of “the new man
which, after Deity, is created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph.
iv. 24). The matrix of this new being
is “the heart” of the sinner. “The word of the kingdom “is the incorruptible
seed sown into his heart. For some time, he has no direct consciousness that a
new creature is forming within him. In process of time, however, his attention
is strongly excited, and he perceives that he carries within him new ideas,
aspirations, and feelings, to which, before he began
Page 13
to read and study the Word, he was an entire
stranger. These are a new creation; and, if they do not prove abortive, will
ultimate in the development of the incorruptible and immortal man: for this new corporeal being is originally
quickened by the truth, or spirit-and-life Word, in the heart of the Old Man
(John vi. 63). “It is the spirit that quickeneth, and the words which I speak unto you, spirit is and life is “—xreiuci byrteai crtv. This is true, whether the quickening be moral or
corporeal; in the former case, the quickening power is in divine ideas, of
which “the words “ are the signs; while in the latter the quickening power is
what philosophers would term electrical.
According therefore, to
the analogy of nature, the second stage in the process of raising, answers to the interval between the begettal, or
conception, in the dust of sheol, and the quickening after judgment. This
interval is perceptible in the case of the last Adam. He was begotten in the
tomb, in fulfillment of the second Psalm, “this day have I begotten thee” (Acts
xiii. 33). But, when Mary afterwards saw him in the garden, he had not been
quickened; for he told her then not to touch him, because he had not yet
ascended to his Father, who was his AlL, strength or power (John xx. 17). But
subsequently to this, we find him in the midst of his disciples, when he
breathed upon them Holy Spirit. When the breath of a man from the tomb is Holy
Spirit, that man must have been corporeally quickened, or have become spirit.
He came forth from the sepulchre so early that it was yet dark; and it was the
same first day at evening that he breathed upon them. Here was a day. Eight
days after this he appeared among them, and on that occasion invited Thomas to
touch him. He had given the same invitation to the rest eight days before, when
he declared that he was flesh and bones, and not a phantasm, as they supposed
(Luke xxiv. 37, 39). Now some time in the interval between the dawn and the
evening of the resurrection day, the cause for the interdict. “Touch me
not” must have been removed: in other
words, the ascent from the lower nature, begotten to incipient life in the
tomb, to the Father “who is the spirit “
(John iv:24) must have taken place. This transition from the one nature
to the other, when the fullness of the time is come, is “in the twinkling of an
eye “ ; which instantaneous operation of Almighty power constitutes the putting on of incorruptibility and
deathlessness; and confers upon the quickened being a life independent of the
natural laws, by which” death is swallowed up in victory “.
In the original, the
word rendered quickened is (xxxxxx)and
signifies “to impart life; to make alive “. Now, as there are two natures,
there are also two sorts of lives. The life of the lower nature is an inferior
life, which depends upon the natural laws for its precarious continuance. It
partakes of the quality of the nature or body through which it is manifested. This
being corruptible, the life
Page 14
is only temporal, or
for a time. This is our present life, intermitted at death, and restored when
we awake from our sleep in the dust of sheol.
We are then as Adam was when he came from the Creator’s hand. The life is organic
and terminable; and liable to disturbance from any cause operating judicially.
In the case of “the unjust “, this judicial operation will develop in their
flesh certain morbid phenomena, which will ultimate in the cessation of the
life, and the entire disorganization of the body; a consummation, styled by
Paul in 2 Cor. ii. 15-16, perishing, or” death unto death”; and in Gal. vi. 8,
“ of the flesh reaping corruption “.
This post-resurrectional
conclusion of the existence of the unjustified, is referable to their not
being deemed worthy of quickening by
the Righteous Judge. He rejects them as not being fit and proper characters to
have incorruptibility and life imparted to
them. In his good pleasure, therefore, he leaves them naked, and exposed to
shame and contempt (Dan. xii. 2; Rev. xvi. 15) : but the wise, who inherit
glory (Prov. iii. 35), their lamp shall not be put out thus (Prov. xiii. 9):
they will be quickened. Their bodies will be perfected, as the body of Jesus
was perfected in its ascent to the Father. Spirit, or power, will be imparted
to them without measure; so that their bodies, conceived in the dust of sheol,
and capable of a return thither, will be deprived of that tendency; and be
transformed into the likeness of the glorious body of Jesus, who never will be
mistaken again for the gardener of Gethsemane. Hence, the transforming
operation is the quickening, or impartation of incorruptibility and life to
bodies already endowed with temporal life. The casting of the dead out of the
earth only puts them into the position occupied by those who are alive at the
advent of Christ. These not having died,
are prepared for transformation. If the
advent occurred immediately, it would find them living men and women, waiting
to be gathered together to the tribunal of Christ. They will appear there an unquickened assembly, bearing the image
of the earthly Adam (1 Cor. xv. 49) ; and in that image, standing before” the
last Adam, the quickening spirit “ ; that it may be seen if they be worthy,
from their account given of themselves, to bear the image of the heavenly. The
fitness of things requires, that all the dead and all the living gathered to
the judgment seat of Christ should appear there an unquickened host. All have
to appear there in the same nature, or body, and for the same end; namely, for
quickening, or transformation, if worthy; otherwise, not. What fitness would
there be in a mixed assembly? Certainly, none. The judgment seat is occupied by
the quickened and quickening spirits ; and this throne is not set up for the
judgment of quickened spirits by the Quickener; but for that of unquickened
flesh and blood, whether contemporary with the judgment, or reproduced from
sheol for judicial purposes.
Page 15
The
attentive reader of the Scriptures will have perceived, that a distinction is
made in things pertaining to the resurrection process. Thus, in John v. 21,
Jesus says, “as the Father rebuilds (xxxx)
the dead ones, and imparts life to
them (xxxx); so also the Son imparts life to, or quickens, whom he will “.
Here, the dead are first awakened, which
implies the rebuilding of their dust and their animation ; and afterwards, quickened with independent and unending
life and power. According to Paul, Jesus himself was the subject of these
operations. This appears from Rom. xiv. 9, where he says, that “Christ both
died, and rose (xxxxx), and revived (xxxxx) “. Here are two distinct
things affirmed of him after his death. Paul was not content with saying, “He
died and rose “, because that form of speech did not express all that happened
to him : anestë or “ rose “, from
which anastasis is derived, did not
express the whole truth; for the dead may stand
up, and yet not be quickened. For this reason, Paul adds the word anezese, from xxxxx, which signifies, to live with increased and strengthened
life, which was consequent upon his being quickened by “the Father “, or
Spirit, who caused him after he died to stand up (John vi. 63) ; hence, because
strength and power are related to what is quickened,’ the word of the Deity is
said to be “ quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword “.
And so also of all who are to
be raised; they are said, first, to
come forth “ from their graves ; but this is not all. When they have come
forth, they stand up ; but what do they stand there at the gates of sheol for? To what end have they emerged
from thence ? The Lord Jesus answers these questions, as follows: “They who
have done good things come forth unto a
standing up of life; but they who have done evil things unto a standing up (xxxxx) of condemnation “ (John v. 29). In this the life and the condemnation are subsequent to the coming forth; for the Lord says,
they come forth to or for (rig) these results : which are
awarded to them, according to the good or evil they may have done before they
entered sheol.
Such,
then, are the things, and the order of their development, in the resurrection
period. First, reorganization of dust as a basis for the restoration of
personal identity ; then the breathing into the nostrils breath of the spirit
of life, that the individual may awake, and stand upon his feet ; after this,
restoration of identity for appearance at the judgment seat of Christ, that the
appearer may give account of himself to that Righteous Judge in the presence of
the angelic apparitors of his court ; afterwards, when these proceedings are
closed, and sentence in accord with the accounts rendered, has drawn the line
of separation “ between him that serveth Elohim, and him that serveth him not”
(Mal. iii. 18)—between the just and the unjust ; then spirit-power,
administered by the Judge, quickens or imparts incorruptibility and life to “
the just “ ; who, in the
Page 16
instantaneity
of the operation, ascend to the Father who is spirit, or are corporeally
transformed into identity of nature with the body of Christ: Such is
resurrection from conception in the
dust of sheol to the quickening inception of a life that ends
no more.
Some idea of the
extraordinary change wrought upon the “mortal body” by its quickening, may be
formed from Daniel’s description of the “ certain man “he saw in the third year
of Cyrus, which was the year in which he was consigned to sheol, now 2,406 years ago (Dan. i. 21 ; x. 1, 5). That certain man
represented to him, was what Paul styles in Eph. iv. 4; j. 22-23, the “One
Body, the Ecclesia “, of which Christ is “ the Head “. Daniel describes this
body corporate of the quickened just ones, as “a man clothed in linen, whose
loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also like the beryl, and
his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his
arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude “. Of
this host, Daniel was assured he should be one, “at the end of the 1335 days “
: which would reach from a given event to the epoch of resurrection” in the
latter days “. Now, while contemplating “ this great vision “, he was
subjected to an operation indicative of his approaching decease ; and of the
process he and others would have to go through, in passing from the death-sleep
of sheol, to the firmamental and enduring brightness of the kingdom.
The decease he was
about to accomplish, and which he speaks of as though he were already in the
dust of death, is specified in the words, “ I was left alone, and there
remained no strength in me ; for my vigor was turned in me into corruption, and
I retained no strength. Then was i in a deep sleep on my face, and my face upon
the earth. I was dumb ; nor was breath left in me “. Now, after remaining thus
an indefinite period, the time arrived for him to awake from this death-sleep; and to be raised from his recumbent position on the ground. He did not make a
sudden and vigorous leap to an upright position in which he was fearless,
fluent of speech, corruptionless and strong, as some imagine the dead to be,
when they dream of their leaping forth incorruptible and immortal. No, he had
to progress by stages from his
proneness in corruption, to a state of confidence and power. In the first stage of the process, a hand
touched him. This was the application of power for his resuscitation. Its
effect was partial, not complete. It gave him existence but it was not
vigorous: for it only placed him upon his knees and the palms of his hands ;
and in a state of mind apparently expressed by the word quandary. He was awake, but in perplexity, not knowing what move to
make ; he was, however, relieved of this, by being invited to” stand upon his
feet “. Although he was addressed as” a man greatly beloved “, he arose from
his hands and knees with fear and trembling. “I stood “, said he,” trembling “.
Page 17
Daniel was now in the second stage of the process. Standing
upright, he was the subject of anastasis,
or “standing up” ; but he was nevertheless in trembling and fear; and still
tending earthward and speechless. But he was bidden not to fear; and was
further encouraged by assurances of good, based upon his previous devotion to
the Word, and his conduct before God. This judicial conference, though it would
gladden the heart of Daniel, did not of itself impart vigor to his
constitution. He was still earthward and speechless for after the words of
comfort were spoken, he says, “ I set my face earthwards (pahnai artzah), and I was dumb “.
He had now arrived at
the third stage in which he was to be
quickened into courageousness,
tranquillity and strength; by which he might “stand in his lot at the end of
the days” ; and shine a star of great brilliancy in the constellations of the “
New Heavens “, in which alone righteousness shall reign. This quickening is
accomplished by “one like the similitude of the sons of men “ touching him. In
this way he alludes to Jesus, then unborn, who, in “the time of the dead “,
shall touch him with Spirit power ; and impart to him the peace, wisdom, and
potency of incorruptibility and life. His ability to speak, and so to give
account of himself in regard to his existence, had been restored to him in the
second stage by the touching of his lips; but this did not make him “ strong “, nor give him “peace “. It only enabled him to confess
his condition of utter feebleness. It remained, therefore, that there should be
a greater impartation of power, by which his whole man should be strengthened.
He was thus touched a second time by the same” appearance of a man”; not upon
the lips, but upon the body. “He came again, and touched me ; and said, 0 man,
greatly beloved, fear not peace be unto thee ; be strong, yea, be strong. And
when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened.”
Such was the preface,
dramatically exhibited, of a prophecy revealing to Daniel the awakening and
recompensing of sleepers in the dust in” the time of the end “. It was the last
of his visions, and the greatest of them all ; because it culminated in “ the
apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity” (Rom. viii. 19). In the vision John had in
Patmos, a like instance occurs in Rev. xi. 1, in which a prophecy ending in
resurrection and judgment (verses 18-19) is prefaced by the dramatic rising of
the prophet himself. The things seen by Daniel in his last vision began to
transpire “ in the first year of Darius the Mede “, which was two years before
he had the vision; and are strewn along a period reaching “ to the time of the
end “, in which is the resurrection of himself and people. It is an amplification of what he saw in the
third year of Beishazzar, when he was also a subject of symbolic resurrection
(viii. 18) ; and for the same reason. From the tenth chapter to the end of his
book, is one continuous record of “that which is noted in the scripture of
truth “.
Page 18
But, in connection with
this extraordinary evolution of living beings from apparently nothing but a
little incorruptible dust, the question of identifying them as men and women
flourishing in society thousands of years before, has wonderful1~ perplexed the
astuteness of the wise and prudent. But the restoration of identity with I)eity
is neither impossible nor difficult. The dead are historical characters, who lived and moved and had being in Deity
(Acts xvii. 28). Hence, all their thoughts and actions, Constituting their
characters, are recorded in Him as in
“a book of remembrance” (Mal. iii. 16). Therein is written their history ; and,
with the exception of their incorporeal dust in sheol, their characters
inscribed upon the divine page are all that remains of them in the universe.
This scroll of record is the broad sheet of spirit, styled by philosophers,
ether and electricity, which, filling the universe, enwraps the world. All
thoughts and actions are vibrations excited in this spirit of the Creator, by
corporeal agents. These subtle vibratory impressions are never obliterated,
unless He wills never to revive them. Many such impressions He has willed to
blot out as in the case of those who are consigned to “ a perpetual sleep
and of sins that have been forgiven. But there
are impressions, at present latent, that are to be intensified and made
manifest ; and “whatsoever doth make manifest is light” (Eph. V. 13). The’
electrical, and electrically recorded, thoughts and actions to be manifested,
are “the hidden things of darkness, and the counsels of the hearts “ of the
just, who have accepted, and of the unjust. who have rejected or extinguished,
the light. These two classes, evolved from the dust of sheol, in the first stage of their raising, are “earthward and
speechless “. They may be said to be like a man newly aroused from deep and
heavy sleep, who fails to realize his exact condition ; and is in doubt where,
what, and how, he is, being in a state not inaptly termed quandary. A recent evolution from dust, what can he know, or what
1angu~ge can he speak? He is like a babe, without speech or knowledge, and,
therefore, without identity ; so that with Daniel, when he acquires speech, he
can say, “I set my face toward the earth, and I was dumb
What then remains for
the establishment in these resurrected men and women of a consciousness of
having existed as members of human society three thousand years, more or less,
before ? All that remains is that, like Daniel, their lips be touched with the
lightning of divine power—” He touched my lips : then I opened my mouth, and
spake “. This magic and enlightening touch restored to him the consciousness he
had lost on falling into the deep sleep, in which all his vigor was turned in
him into corruption, and he retained no strength. The electrical vibrations of
his former self, by that potent touch upon his lips, were flashed upon his
brain; and he was enabled to give an account of himself as affected by the
vision before he
Page 19
slept. And so with the just and the unjust in
general. Their histories will be flashed upon their brains, being transferred
thither by Almighty power from the divine and electrical page upon which they
are all inscribed. So that truly of the dead it may be said, “they all live to
him” (Luke xx. 38).
The analogy of nature
is often referred to in the Scripture in illustration of the deep things of the
Spirit. It is reasonable that the one should be laid under contribution in
expounding the other; because the beings to be taught are natural beings; and
the exponent is the Creator of them all. The explanation I have given of the
manner in which consciousness of identity is impressed upon newly-created
beings, was suggested by the remarkable effect of lightning recently observed
upon the bodies of a man and his son, killed by a flash while sheltering under
a tree. A perfect likeness of the tree was flashed upon them. “Whatsoever doth
make manifest is the light.” The lines and shadows of the tree had been
imparted to the subtle fluid, so that, when it touched their bodies, it flashed
upon them a likeness identical with
the original ; and thus the likeness was transferred from the lightning to the
bodies. All that is required in resurrection is, identity of form or image, and
identity of likeness so that the intellectual and moral likeness of a
pre-resurrectional man be not flashed upon the post-resurrectional image of a
woman. This would be confusion.
From this view of the
development of identity, it will be seen how futile are all human efforts to
circumvent resurrection. The enemies of the saints in various ages have thought
to prevent their resurrection by burning their bodies, and scattering their
dust to the winds! But the Lord in heaven holds all such enterprises in
derision. Any other dust may do as well—the power of identity not residing
there, but in the character already formed being flashed by the spirit upon the
new creature.
But in opposition to
all this are the notions of “the prudent “, who are “wiser in their own conceit
than seven men who can render a reason “. Their tradition is that no such
doctrine is taught in the Scriptures as that the righteous have to appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, and to give account of what they have done
since their adoption into the family of Christ; that upon such a principle,
nobody would be saved ; because none could attain to the standard of
acceptance; they repudiate the idea with scornful indignation, and say, there
is no sense in it ; for if such were the case, it would put them into such a
state of feeling as to make them fit inmates of a lunatic asylum. They affirm
that all the account, or confession, the righteous have to make is now; and
that their leap from their graves incorruptible and immortal, is their judgment
; upon which they are caught up into the air, where they are for ever with the
Page 20
Lord. This tradition they have thrown into the
form of the three following propositions :—
1. Mortal resurrection
is not taught, directly nor indirectly, in the Scriptures.
2. The righteous are
not brought to judgment.
3. The Scriptures teach
positively and without reservation, that the righteous are raised
incorruptible.
These have been
affirmed and argued for the purpose of setting aside the doctrine set forth in
the first and second volumes of my Exposition of the Apocalypse, called EUREKA;
and which is termed by them “ false teaching” ; an opinion unscriptural,
heretical, and contrary to the gospel Paul preached. They consider that, in the
second volume of Eureka, this alleged
false teaching is in form more offensive than in the first: and that in the
exposition given by me in said work, I have denied the faith, and endeavored to
preach another gospel, and so have brought myself under the curse pronounced by
Paul upon such. Thus they charge me with “apostasy” ; while they, under the
banner of the aforesaid propositions, consider themselves the veritable Simon
Pures ! Their language is by no means complimentary. The following is a choice
specimen : “ The Doctor comes like the wily serpent, whispers in the ears of
his brethren with specious arguments until he poisons their minds, and thinking
that what he has written will not he taken notice of, boldly pushes the matter,
until those whose minds cannot be corrupted, turn away in sorrow and grief that
a great man has fallen in Israel I
These are certainly
grievous charges; and, if they could be substantiated, would classify me among
the most miserable of men. But, happily, the indictment is not true. What they
regard as a denial of the faith, is neither more nor less than an enlargement of faith by an increased
knowledge of the first principles of the divine oracles believed. My faith has
not been stinted in its growth. Seventeen years ago, I believed that “ the dead
are raised incorruptible “, and taught that truth in ELPIS ISRAEL. But when I
wrote that work (now styled by those who curse me, “a precious book
because they think it justifies their view, and
condemns mine), my attention had not been drawn to the subject in its details.
At that time I strenuously affirmed the resurrection of the body as the only way
to eternal life, in opposition to the dogma of immortality independent of
resurrection, by which both resurrection and judgment, two of the first
principles of the doctrine of Christ, are abolished and without which no system
of belief is worth a rush. But now, the times are no longer what they were. We
are seventeen years nearer resurrection and judgment ; nay, more, we are on the
verge of these awful and fearful events. It has, therefore, become necessary to
study them in detail, that by adding knowledge to our faith and
page
21
virtue, we may be “ neither sluggard nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ “ (2 Pet. i. 5, 8); for the more one
studies a subject and knows about it, the more lively his conceptions of it,
and the more earnest and faithful his convictions.
But why are these zealots so scornful of the
doctrine I affirm Why are they so frantically opposed to the idea that all,
both just and unjust, must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to give
account of themselves, previously to being quickened with a life that shall
never end? Why does the proof of such an arrangement threaten them with lunacy,
if not already lunatic ? The answer to these inquiries is found in their own
confession, that “man commits so many things, owing to his infirmities, and
omits to do so many things, that he would under any circumstances be lost “. In
other words, they are conscious of loving the world and the things that are in
the world; of being more devoted to these than to the truth; of glorifying more
in the politics of some political faction of” the Court that is without” in
which they live and move and have their social being, than in the understanding
and knowledge of Jehovah and His ways. This is the loose screw in their
machinery that causes so much rattle. Hence, to quiet their disturbed
consciences, they adopt the theory more congenial to the thinking of the flesh,
that “the righteous are not brought to judgment “. Their argument is this :
“We have “, say they, “no righteousness of our own. Jesus Christ is our
righteousness. He covers us. And the Deity beholding his righteousness, does
not see our filthy rags. If we confess our sins, He is not only just to forgive
us, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Here is truth misapplied, and
which therefore nullifies it. The phrase “ filthy rags “is nowhere used in
Scripture as descriptive of “ the righteousness of the righteous “ (Ezek.
xviii. 19-30). It is only used once ; and then it is expressive of the “
righteousness of unpardoned, but repentant Israel (Isa. lxiv. 6). Hence,
therefore, it is only correctly applied, not to the work of faith and labour of
love, or good works of the righteous, but to the righteousness of unpardoned
sinners. If a saint has no righteousness of
his own, Jesus Christ will refuse to be righteousness for him at the judgment. He
covers naked sinners, that, as saints, they may develop works; that by these
works which perfect faith, they may be justified, as Abraham was (James ii.
21-26). Zealots in their frenzy do not perceive. the difference between the
justification of sinners and the justification of saints. Sinners are
“justified by faith “ in the obedience of faith, which is baptism; while saints
are” justified by works “in the presence of the Righteous Judge “at his
appearing and his kingdom “. Hence, these theorists, who have “a zeal of God
but not according to knowledge “, in their argument condemn themselves. They
declare that they have “no righteousness of their own “. I fear this is the
fact ; and that their garments are as filthy as they say.
Page 22
If their theory brought such ragged pretenders to
judgment, what would become of them in view of the man cast into outer darkness
because of the filthiness of his garment? (Matt. xxii. 12-13). Truly, as they
say, if they were required to appear in “raiment clean and white, which is the
righteousness of the saints “ (Rev. xix. 8), the lunacy of despair awaits them.
But they are saved from this at present by self-deception. They seize hold of a
great truth and misapply it, and from the mis-application, they extract
comfort. “ If any one sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous one.” This is said by John to those whom he styles his
little children “. To
such he also saith, “ if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness “. This is a
great truth ; but it is available only on certain conditions. The apostle shows
that mere confession is not enough. If the confessor walk in darkness, the
confession is denounced as a lie ; for “ the Deity is light, and in him is no
darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in the
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but, if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin “ (1 John i. 5-10 ; ii. 1). Saints are
forgiven if they walk in the light ; otherwise they are not.
It is a great and
consoling truth, that the saints have “an advocate with the Father “. If they
had not, they would be in a worse case than sinners, for it is bad not to know
the truth ; but it is worse to know it, and not to walk in the light of it. If
they had no advocate with the Father, few of them indeed, fewer than the few
that will be chosen, would be saved. But, because they have an advocate, some
of them will be saved; but of sinners, none. Through this advocate, “Jesus
Christ the righteous one “, the Father will forgive the sins of all saints,
which are not unto death (1. John v. 16). Mortal sins, however He will not pardon No amount of confession
will obtain remission of these. The advocate will to plead for saints who
commit such offences (Eph.v.: 3,6 Gal v 19’,21). Their fate is shame, contempt,
and exclusion from incorruptibility and life in the kingdom of the Deity. “They
shall not see life ; but the wrath of Deity abideth on them “ (John iii. 36).
But when are venial
sins committed by saints forgiven? As soon, says Protestant tradition, as they
are repented of and confessed. This it regards as “giving account” ; and it
might be added, as settling the account to the satisfaction of the debtor, who
indignantly repudiates the idea of having to give account at the judgment seat,
which he regards as settling a debt twice over
There is no sense in
it,” says he ; “ and if such is to be the order of things, I would rather be in
the grave and never leave it more !
Page 23
It is no use, however,
getting fretted at the Deity’s plans and purposes. The question is not what we
would rather do, but what He has appointed. He has answered the question in the
Mosaic “parable “, which is “ the pattern of the things in the heavens “. In
this He shows that, while the High Priest, or Advocate, is in the most holy
place, the people are without, engaged in confession and prayer, waiting and
looking for the appearing. They knew not whether their confession of sins and
supplications for forgiveness were favorably responded to, or not, until the
advocate came forth to bless them in the appointed form (Num. vi. 23). Upon the
pronunciation of the benediction, which was the judgment in the case, they
were relieved of all anxiety, and were now prepared to rejoice before Jehovah
in the ensuing feast of tabernacles. Thus, “as it was appointed for the men (or
Aaronic High Priests), once to die (symbolically in entering through the Veil
with sacrificial blood), but after this, judgment (in coming forth to bless) :
so the Christ who was once led forth to bear the sins of many, shall appear
unto them who are looking for him a second time without sin unto salvation”
(Heb. ix. 27-28). This is, then, the divine plan. The Advocate of the saints
has been for many centuries in the Most Holy ; in all of which long period the
saints have been praying without, and sending up as incense, “ supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings -spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
Deity through Jesus Christ
(1 Pet. ii. 5): and while thus engaged, waiting
and looking for His appearing to pronounce the blessing, or to withhold it,
according to conditions specified in the word. When He comes forth to judgment,
“ He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest
the counsels of the hearts ; and then the praise shall be to each one from the
Deity” (1 Cor. iv. 5). The manifestation of character first, and praise
afterwards, if deserved.
But, we are told that “
mortal resurrection is not taught, directly nor indirectly, in the Scriptures
“. By “ mortal resurrection” I suppose objectors mean, the coming forth of
bodies from the dust of sheol, whose
life is terminable. They deny that the bodies of the just and unjust, in their
coming forth, are alike. Perhaps they would admit that the unjust come forth
mortal; but not the just. These, they affirm, are generated in the dust
incorruptible and immortal ; and come forth as perfect as they will ever be.
But in opposition to
this notion, is the teaching of Paul. He very plainly tells the saints, in Rom.
viii. 11, that “the Deity who raised up the Christ from the dead, shall also
quicken their MORTAL BODIES by his spirit”; and in 1 Cor. vi. 14,
“He will raise us up by his own power “.
This is affirmed of all saints of all generations. Did Paul mean the “mortal
bodies “called saints, living at the time he penned these words? If he did,
were they ever quickened? No; instead of having life imparted to their mortal
bodies, they lost even
Page 24
the life they had, in common with all flesh. And
where are said mortal bodies now? Body is
a congeries of organs in the image of Deity. Where are these bodies ? They are
nowhere. Only a little dust remains of them in sheol, and unorganized dust
is not body. What, then, is necessary that Paul’s words may come to pass?
Manifestly, that the saints re-appear as mortal bodies ; so that when they have
come forth corruptible and mortal, “ THIS corruptible
may “put on incorruption, and THIS mortal”
may “put on immortality “, by the spirit or power of Deity, who quickens.
Again, he teaches that
“the life of Jesus “is intended for manifestation in our body, or mortal
flesh. The troubles, perplexities, and persecutions the saints endure on
account of the truth, he styles “bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord
Jesus” ; in order-that “ the life of Jesus might be made manifest in their mortal flesh.
(2 Cor. iv. 10-11). The phrase, “ the life of
Jesus “, is expressive of his moral example, or conduct, and the life-power of
his resurrection. Paul’s teaching requires that both these be manifested in our
mortal flesh. The Deity has predestined that all saints who would attain to
eternal life, be “conformed to the image of his Son” ; both to his moral and
material image. But the moral conformity must precede the corporeal. We are
buried with him by baptism into death, that we should walk in newness of
life—the life of Jesus— and by virtue of this come to be planted in the
likeness of his resurrection (Rom. vi. 4-5 : viii. 29 ; Phil. iii. 10). But
where is the “ mortal flesh “ of the saints of past generations, in which the
resurrection-life of Jesus may be manifested? There is no flesh pertaining to
them in existence. There is nothing of them remains, but their characters
recorded in the divine register, and a little dust. Is it not evident, then,
that “ mortal flesh “ must be created, and pre-resurrectional consciousness
flashed upon it, that the saints of Rome and Corinth may experience the life of
Jesus in the mortal flesh ?
Again, Paul teaches, in
2 Cor. v. 4, saying, “We would not be unclothed “, or reduced to dust; “but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life “. The thing to be “
clothed upon “is (xxxxx), the mortal, which
is another word for mortal flesh, or mortal body, or body of death. This is the
thing to be “ clothed upon with the house from heaven “, or, in other words,
“incorruptibility and life “. But where is the mortal thing to be swallowed up?
The dust of .sheol is not mortal,
being devoid of any kind of life. The dust is incorruptible and would continue
as it is, and as it has been for thousands of years, without change
indefinitely. It is not the incorruptible that is to be swallowed up of life,
but the mortal. It is evident, then, that the thing which comes forth from the
grave must be mortal flesh, or body; and that it is this which is to be “
clothed upon “, or to” put on incorruptibility and life “, in being quickened
after judgment.
Page 25
From these premises, it
may be seen whether “ mortal resurrection is taught, directly or indirectly, in
the Scriptures “, or not. I have shown that it is; and furthermore affirm that
it is in perfect harmony with all Paul’s teaching as exhibited in all his
writings that have come down to us. I proceed now to remark, that the second proposition of our opponents is
as foundationless as their first. They say that the “righteous are not to be
brought to judgment “. By this they mean that the elect are not to stand at the
bar of Christ’s tribunal, and there to tell the story of their lives, as developed
in connection with the profession of the faith. Their theory of being
conceived, quickened and born of the spirit in an instant of time, will not
allow of giving account They are satisfied with nothing short of an
instantaneous and sudden bound from the dust, somewhat after the manner of a
rocket skyward through the air t They do not seem to have any respect for
figures, or analogies; and, I am sorry to say, some of them manifest as little
deference for the plain and direct testimony of the Word.
Moses and Paul both
testify that “Jehovah shall judge his people “ (Deut. xxxii. 36; Heb. x. 30).
And Solomon says, “The Elohim shall judge the
righteous and the wicked” (Eccl. iii. 17). This Elohistic Judge is the
Father and the Son in flesh-manifestation, justified by spirit (I’ Tim. iii.
16). “ The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, and bath given him
authority to execute judgment also,
because he is the Son of Man “ (John v. 22, 27). “As I hear “, adds Jesus, “I
judge; and my judgment is just “. “The word that I have spoken, the same shall
judge him in the last day” (John xii.
48). “The Lord will not condemn the righteous ~i-hen he ‘is judged” (Psa. xxxvii. 33). “He shall bring every work
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. xii. 14).
“Every injurious word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in a day of judgment” (not merely when
they confess in prayer) : “ for by thy words “, saith Jesus, “thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. xii. 36-37). Paul
teaches that “men treasure up for
themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of Deity: who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them
who by patient continuance in well doing SEEK
FOR glory and honour and incorruptibility, eternal life; but unto them that are
contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of
the Jew first and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every
man that worketh good, to the Jew
first, and also to the Gentile; for there is no respect of persons with Deity.
For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as
many as have sinned in the law, shall
Page 26
be judged by law, in the day when Deity shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus
Christ according to my gospel” (Rom.
ii. 5-12, 16).
No teaching can be
plainer than this. There is a day styled “ the last day “, which is “a day of
judgment” ; specified by John as “the time of the dead that they should be
judged “ (Rev. xi. 18). In that day, “a great white throne “is set ; and “ the
dead, small and great, stand before Deity “ sitting thereon : certain books are
then opened, “and the dead are judged out of those things which are written in
the book, according to their works “
(Rev. xx. 11-15). This judicial throne is what Paul terms in Rom. xiv. 10, and
2 Cor. v. 10, “the judgment seat of Christ” ; and in writing to the saints
therein, he says we must all appear and stand before it. He includes himself
among the appearers, and declares that on that occasion, as Jehovah has sworn
in Isa. xlv. 23, “every one of us shall
give account of himself to Deity “ ; in order that according to the account
rendered “every one may receive the
things through the body( xxxxx) according
to what he hath done, whether good or evil” ; according to his works, as they
may be adjudged good or evil, by the gospel rule. This rule declares that
“whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption” (Gal. vi. 8). Now
sowing to the flesh is for a saint to live after the flesh; and Paul tells them
that “if they live after the flesh, they shall die ; but if through the spirit
they mortify the deeds of the body, they shall live “ (Rom. viii. 13). Now,
this reaping corruption of the flesh, and dying, is receiving “ through the
body “, evil. It cannot be evil received in ordinary death ; for this evil is
common to all mankind, whether righteous or wicked. No it is evil received
through the body which comes out of the grave and it is evil inflicted after
the Righteous Judge has heard the account rendered; and pronounced His disapproval
of it. Saints who have thus sowed to the flesh must come forth corruptible and
mortal, or they could not reap corruption of the body. But, it is objected,
that these are not the righteous. True; but the righteous appear at the same
time and place; and for the same purpose: and the good rendered to them through
the body is subsequent to the account given. It is understood, that the good to
be rendered through the body is incorruptibility and life—a reaping of the
spirit, life everlasting. How could this be reaped, consequent upon an account
given and approved-, if the saint had incorruptibility and life before he
appeared at the tribunal, and before any account were rendered? Clearly, then,
he appears in body for judgment; and in one that is neither incorruptible nor
deathless : but his historical character being
approved, the body upon which that character has been flashed, is perfected ;
and he lives for evermore. It is proved, then, if testimony can prove anything,
that the righteous will be brought
Page 27
to judgment; and receive through the body
presented the good the Righteous Judge may be pleased to award.
But the righteous are
not only gathered to the judgment of the last day; but the judgment of that day
begins with them. “The time is “, says Peter, “ that judgment must begin at the House of the Deity; and if
first at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of the
Deity ? And if the righteous scarcely be
saved, where shall the ungodly and
sinner appear?” (1 Pet. iv. 17-18).
This judgment begins with the judgment of the saints in the presence of Christ
; and as they are now exhorted to “work out their salvation with fear and
trembling” ; and however excellent their Christian character, are not judges in
their own case; for even Paul said, “I judge not myself” : so they appear at
his tribunal with more or less of the feeling of misgiving Daniel had before he
was strengthened, consequent upon peace being pronounced upon him. Because of
the certainty of this state of mind being that of the most excellent of the
saints in the Divine Presence, the beloved apostle exhorts the faithful to a
certain course of spiritual life in the present world ; that “ when he shall
appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1
John ii. 28). “By loving in deed and in truth “, says he, “we know that we are
of the truth, and shall assure our hearts
before him. For if our heart condemn us, the Deity is greater than our
hearts, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if
our heart condemn us not, THEN have we confidence towards Deity” (1 John
iii. 19-21). The only way, then, for the righteous to approach the dread
tribunal in the spirit evinced by Paul in 2 Tim. iv. 7-8, is to “walk so as we
have him for an example”; and he walked “in the steps of Abraham’s faith “, and
after the example of Jesus Christ. In this way we may attain to the degree of
excellence which will give us “boldness in the day of judgment” (1 John iv. 17)
otherwise, not only timidity, but a vivid apprehension of being put to shame
before him and the angelic apparitors of his court, will be the enervating
feeling attendant upon us, when we report ourselves in e presence of the Judge.
Now, this judgment,
which begins at the House of the Deity, is styled by Paul, in Heb. vi. 2, (xxxxx) aionian judicial trial. It is
termed aionian, because the great
spiritual assize is opened for the examination of cases aspiring to the glory,
honour, and immortality of the kingdom “in
the last day “. This last day is “THE DAY OF CHRIST “, which succeeds the
day of his predecessor and rival, the Antichrist; whose judgment-seat is now
about being abolished by French and Italian policy (2 Thess. ii. 2, 8).
Christ’s day is judicially inaugurated, and styled in Rev. 1. 6, the aeons of the aeons. Whatever,
therefore, pertains to his day in its inception or continuance, is aeonian. The judicial period is a
transition period, termed” the Hour of
Deity’s judgment” in Rev. xiv. 7; a period intervening between
Page 28
the advent of Christ and the consummation of the
destruction of Daniel’s fourth beast; or the powers of modern “Christendom
This AEon-judgment in its beginning separates the
wheat from the tares, which it destroys; “but gathers the wheat into the barn
“. When this process is complete, authority is given to “ the called and chosen
and faithful” to execute the judgment written against the enemies of Deity,
until “ the powers that be ‘ are
abolished and the kingdom promised to the saints is established in their stead
(Dan. vii. 22; Psa. cxlix. ; Rev. xvii. 14).
The third proposition, upon which great
stress is laid by those who skim the surface of things, and having obtained a
smattering of some, swell out like the frog in the fable, until they burst ;
when all their wisdom turns out to be gas, and nothing more—this same proposition
is blazoned, as though they were its special guardians ; and that no one
believed it but themselves! “The Scriptures teach positively, and without
reservation, that the righteous are
raised incorruptible.” This is their form of words ; not “ the form of
sound words “ delivered by Paul. He says, “ the
dead ones (xxxx’) shall be rebuilt (xxxx) incorruptible” (1 Cor. xv. 52).
This I believe and teach. He does not say, (xxxxxxx),
the dead ones shall stand up incorruptible
“. He does not teach such an anastasis or
standing up as this; for both the just and the unjust will stand up ; but they will not stand up incorruptible ; it will only
he those of them who so stand up, that
will become incorruptible, when their rebuilding
is complete in their putting on incorruptibility
and life ; or in being” clothed upon with their house from heaven “when they
are quickened by the Spirit, because their account rendered is well-pleasing to
the Judge.
But the notion of the
objector is that the righteous, like skyrockets, shoot out from their graves
into the air, incorruptible and immortal. This is the idea they have of being raised. No matter what diversity
of figure, word or analogy may be employed in unfolding the subject, they
merge it all in one idea—that of being raised from various depths below the sod
to the earth’s surface ; and thence caught up into the clouds, in an instant of
time, to meet the Lord in the air. This is their opinion of what Paul meant, on
the supposition that the words of the English version are the exact
representatives of those he wrote. But I have shown that their opinion is
erroneous, and does not express his meaning. This, on account of their critical
inability, they pervert and as they cannot, or will not, reason upon the
testimony, as Paul’s manner was, unlike him, they substitute denunciation, and
cry “heresy “. This is the Old Man over again. Of his devices we are not
ignorant. His cries are as impotent as himself; and not to be regarded by those
who know the truth.
In the days of Paul,
he, or some of his adherents, had succeeded in creeping in among the saints at
Corinth unawares. They seem
Page 29
to have been very forward in talking about things
they did not understand. They ran wild in speculation, until they came to deny
that there is any anastasis, or
standing up, of dead ones at all. Paul began with them at this point, and
completely demolished their tradition. He declared that, if there were no
future resurrection of saints, there. had been no past resurrection of the
Christ; and that, if he were still among the dead, the doctrine he (Paul)
preached was false ; and there was eternal life for none. But, in opposition to
the traditions of these disciples of the Old Man (whom he charged with being
destitute in the knowledge of the Deity, to their shame), he testified that the
Christ had been raised ; and that his resurrection was the earnest of the
resurrection of those he left sleeping ; and of those who shall be his at his
coming. Thus Paul taught. Nevertheless, they were incredulous: for they could
not perceive how one who had been nonexistent for ages, could be built up and
made immortal. They said, “How are the dead ones rebuilded? And or what body (‘xxxx) do they come forth ? “
Paul put their difficulty into this form of words. He did not say, as in the
English version,” with what body do
they come? “ There is no word for “ with”
in the original. The words are in the dative case, the sign of which is to or for. They are to come forth from
their graves for something. Are they
to retain the body emergent from the ground; or, is this to be changed into
some other kind of body ? Is this other kind of body that for which they’ come
forth? As Paul put the inquiry, it was not to know “with what body “, they come forth; but “for what body “, when the building shall be completed.
In considering Paul’s
treatment of these questions, it should be remembered that he is speaking of
resurrection, or anastasis ; and not analusis, or dissolution. His point of
departure in his argument, is not burial;
it is not the putting of a body into the ground; but the bringing of an
entirely new body out of it. His
discourse in illustration of the questions proposed, has to do with this new
body, and with that which is to succeed it. The old body buried is done with.
It has answered its purpose as a medium through which a character might be developed. It dies, is buried, and dissolves,
leaving only a residuum of dust. It is no more a body; so that whatever comes
forth must be a new creation, after the similitude of the first Adam in his
original formation.
Paul’s proposition in relation to resurrection, is, that “
there is a psychical body like the first Adam’s; and a pneumatical body, like
the last Adam’s “. The former he styles
(xxxxx), a living breathing frame, and earthy, or (xxxxx), or the dust : the latter(xxxxxxx), or quickening
spirit ; and(xxxxxx), out of or from
heaven. In the wisdom of Deity, no
body coming out of the dust can be anything but earthy; and, therefore,
neither incorruptible nor immortal. Incorruptibility and life, which is the
incorruption of spirit, must come
Page 30
down
out of heaven; so that a body issuing from the dust, when
invested with this incorruption, is reckoned as a body from heaven, or
heavenly—” a house from heaven “.
Now the thing to be
accomplished in resurrection is the development of a spirit-body, with the
consciousness that the character flashed
upon the new earthy body was evolved
through an old earthy body in a
previous state. In this wonderful development, the new resurrection-earthy body
takes the place of the old body dissolved in the grave ; so that, as far as
body is concerned in the matter, the one
character on record in the Lamb’s book of life, when glorified, will have
been related to three bodies, more or
less intimately connected—the first, the body of sin; the second, a body like
Adam’s before he sinned; and the third, this second new body changed, or
transformed, by quickening, into a glorious, powerful, and spiritual body. When
this is manifested, the process is complete; and the spiritually embodied
character, named Abraham, for example, is “clothed upon with -his house which
is from heaven “. He is then “raised incorruptible “.
Now this remarkable
process, Paul illustrates by the raising of wheat or of other grain. He was a
more intelligent botanist than most of his readers. In raising of wheat, he did
not make the sprouting and ripening one and the same phenomenon, as they do.
He did not first put his seed into the earth, and as soon as it showed itself
above ground, run with sickle to reap it I The raising of grain is a process which takes months to perfect ; and
it is not said to be raised “until it is ripe in the ear. When the naked seed
is put into the ground, that particular seed never reappears. It dies and loses
its form; it is no longer a seed-body; but is succeeded by a new body. which appears above the
ground. This is the sprout-body from
that sown, and, therefore, said to have been sown. But as Paul says, “it is not
that body that shall be “. It has to tarry for months until it shall have
received a body according to the pleasure of the Creator. Here, then, are three bodies in grain-raising, more or
less nearly related—the seed-body; the sprout-body;
and the raised-body, divinely
given. This third, or raised body, was not sown: the sprout-body was the body
sown, because it sprouted or sprang forth from the naked grain cast into the
ground. The springing forth is the third stage of the sowing process. It is
first begotten in the earth ; it is then quickened, or made alive; and,
thirdly, it springs forth, or is born. All
this is of the earth, earthy ; and, without the further spiritual influences of
heaven, such as air, rain, and sunshine, this terrestrial and inglorious body
would never become a raised body hearing fruit. It would fade, shrivel up and
die.
And “so also “, says
Paul, “is the anastasis, or
standing-up of the dead ones” (1 Cor. xv. 42) ; and, speaking of the sprout-body
(for there is no other body in the premises), he adds,( xxxxx)
Page 31
(xxxxxxx). This
word speiretai, he associates with
corruption, dishonour, weakness, and naturality; while egeiretai is connected with incorruption, glory, power, and
spirituality. In the active voice, te4w signifies
to scatter, as when seed is cast upon the earth ; but, in the passive voice, it
signifies “ to spring or be born “.
In 1 Cor. xv. 42-43, speiretai is
passive, and used in this sense. The antithetic word egeiretai is also passive, and relates to the same body as speiretai ; for it is the sprout-body
that is transformed ; there being no other body in the grave, nor out of it,
for transformation. When, therefore, it can be affirmed that the sprout-body has
become incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual, the word egeiretai will be applicable. It can
then he said to have been raised, or built incorruptible. “ Destroy this temple
“, said the Spirit, “ and in three days I
will raise it up” (xxxxx). The Jews retorted, “ Forty and six years was
this temple in building, and in three days wilt thou rear it up (xxxx) ? “ “But this spake he of the temple of his -body” (John
ii. 19-21). In this text, the same verb is used as in I Cor. xv. 42, and in
relation to resurrection. To raise, rear up, or build, is the correct idea; and
every one ought to know that such an operation is progressive, not
instantaneous.
This passage, then, in
1 Cor. xv., so little understood by them who quote it most, should be read, “
the resurrection-body speiretai, springs,
is sprouted or born, in corruption ; egeiretai,
it is built, reared up, or raised, in incorruption ; it is sprouted in
dishonour ; it is reared up in glory : it is sprouted in weakness ; it is built
up in power : it is born (of the earth) a natural body ; it is reared up (or
transformed by Spirit into) a spiritual body “. This is the sense of the
passage, and in strict harmony with” the form of sound words” used by the
apostle.
But the analogy of nature
in resurrection is not confined to the sprouting or germinating, and the
ripening into “the fruit of righteousness “, which is incorruptibility and
life (Rom. viii. 10). It is seen in a field of newly-sown grain. When the seed
scattered therein has lain certain days in the earth, if germinable, it
sprouts, or springs, into view, and the whole field looks fresh and green. But
what observer, from mere appearance of the field of vision, can tell whether
the green herb be grass, wheat, rye, or cheat ? If he desired a pure field of
wheat, and he were to undertake to separate the wheat from the cheat and rye,
he would be as likely to root up the wheat as the others, being so much alike
before they have received the bodies the Deity has been pleased to give them.
So, also, in the resurrection fields of bodies sprouted, germinated, or
generated, from the dust. Viewed by a spectator unacquainted with their
antecedents, all who have come forth, both just and unjust, appear alike to
him. He could not from mere appearance, separate the one class from the other.
The crowd before him in this stage of resurrection, which is
Page 32
simply anastasis,
or standing up, are in corruption, dishonour, weakness, and naturality; for
those physical qualities are constituents of all bodies begotten or conceived
in dust—” dust of the earth, earthy “; yet” very good “bodies, in the sense
that the first Adam’s was” very good “before he sinned (Gen. 1.31: ii. 7).
But, to return to the
similitude of the fields fresh and green. On the supposition that the seed sown
were all wheat, and that it had all sprung forth, and made a very fair show to
the eye; nevertheless, agriculturists know well that much of what has sprung
forth will, from various causes, perish ; to use the phraseology of Paul, that,
to very many of the plants, the Deity will not give bodies bearing seed. So
also will it be in the resurrection of the saints. Many sinners become saints
by “ the obedience of faith “, and run well for a time. The obedience of faith
constitutes them “wheat “. After a time, however, they are often bewitched, and
tire of obeying the truth (Gal. iii. 1). Hence, their vitality or vigor is
impaired, and they become wheat of a shriveled and feeble constitution. Their
characters become sickly over with the pale cast of skepticism, indifference,
apathy, and conformity to the world and its practices. Thus “ they walk after
the flesh “, and are “in the flesh “which is regarded by the Deity as” sowing
to the flesh “, the penalty of which is death.
Now, according to the
constitution of the wheat sown, is its ability, when sprouted, to resist the
influences which cause to perish. So with the saints of the Sardian type, who
have a name that they live, but are dead. The pallor of death is upon their
characters so that when bodies come forth from sheol, those of them upon which are enstamped, or flashed, these
sickly, death-stricken characters, are conscious of being identical with the “
bewitched “ of a former state. “ Boldness in the day of judgment “does not pertain
to such. The influences which cause to perish will be too strong for them for
the account they will give of themselves will be truthful then, if they
eschewed the truth before ; and this will overwhelm them in shame and
condemnation. They will be “wheat turned to cheat” to which is never given the wheat-body bearing
seed. The divine sentence will be against them; so that an incorruptible and
living house from heaven will be withheld; and they will perish in the
corruption of the sprout-body in returning to the dust from whence it came.
Tertullian, who became
a Christian about eighty-five years after the reception of the Apocalypse by
the apostle John, that is, about AD. 185, in writing upon the resurrection,
says: “He who raises the dead to life will raise the body in its perfect
integrity. This is part of the change which the body will undergo at the
resurrection ; for though the dead will
be raised in the flesh, yet they who attain to the resurrection of
happiness will pass into the angelic
state and put on the
Page 33
vesture
of immortality, according to the declaration of the apostle Paul,
that ‘this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality’; and again, that ‘ our vile bodies will be changed that they may
be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ ‘.“
In this testimony,
Tertullian teaches, first, the
resurrection of the same kind of flesh as that deposited in the grave ; and, second, that those of them thus restored
to life, who may be appointed to happiness, do not remain in the same state,
and of the same nature; but pass out of it in passing into the angelic state,
and so putting on the vesture of immortality ; in which, as Jesus expresses it,
“ they can die no more ; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the
children of the Deity, being the children of the resurrection “ (Luke xx. 36).
(This is for the consideration of those who style “mortal resurrection “, as
they term it, a new doctrine.—R.R.]
But some will say : Are all that ever breathed the breath of
life to stand up in resurrection? Unquestionably not. I have already shown
from Scripture that multitudes “ sleep a perpetual sleep “, but not all. What,
then, it may be said, is the ground of difference? Why should some rise and
others not ? In the first place there is no necessity for resurrection where
hope is excluded and condemnation is final. “ All the world is guilty before
the Deity, who has concluded all under sin “ (Rom. iii. 9, 19 ; Gal. iii. 22).
Now, respecting this guilty world, “walking in the vanity of its mind, having
its understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of the Deity through
its ignorance and blindness of heart” (Eph. iv. 17-18), respecting this, Jesus
says, “it is condemned already “—it is condemned to “sleep a perpetual sleep “.
But some will say, “ Has the Deity then made all men in vain ? “Nay,
verily, His PURPOSE IS TO EVOLVE A RIGHTEOUS AND IMMORTAL WORLD OUT OF THE
WORLD OF MORTAL SINNERS, and to lay the
foundation of this great work in their scriptural intelligence and the
obedience of faith. This being His purpose, knowledge, belief, and
obedience are made the basis of accountability
and responsibility. By the former
is meant liability to give an account, and to receive reward or punishment for
the same ; and, by the latter, the state of being answerable for something
entrusted to one’s care. Now, Christ Jesus says in John iii. 19, “this is the (xxxx)~ or ground of judgment, that the
light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light,
because their deeds were evil “. The light shining into the darkness and
divinely attested, makes sinners
accountable and SAINTS responsible; but
into that region of the shadow of death where the light has not shone with
divine attestation, the inhabitants of that region, who do not attain to the
comprehension of the light, are not accountable to the resurrection and
judgment it reveals. “The whole world lieth in the wicked one (xxxxxx)in sin ; and,
Page 34
therefore, in the shadow of death; for the wages
of sin is death. When Paul appeared in Athens upon Mars Hill, he shone as a
bright light into the darkness of death’s shadow. The polished -and learned
Athenians he addressed, were the sons of a superstition inherited from a remote
ancestry. They had been made subject to it by circumstances they could not
control, or, as Paul expresses it, “made subject to vanity not willingly “. Of
the God of Israel manifested in flesh, His purposes, promises, and commands,
they knew no more than their ancestors knew for ages; and had not Paul, or
someone else divinely commissioned, visited them, they would never have
discovered the truth concerning these things. “Who by searching can find out
the Deity? “ No one; yet He “was found of them who sought him not “, for to a
nation not called by His name He said, by Paul,” Behold me, behold me !“
Thus they were under” times of ignorance “when Paul appeared
in their midst. They were not liable to be called upon to give an account for
not doing what they were helplessly ignorant of. “In times past, the Deity had
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts xiv. 1~). This was
winking at times of ignorance. Their own ways were the ways of death, in which
they were hopeless and atheistic (Eph. ii. 12). To them there were neither
rewards nor punishments beyond the grave. By their wisdom, of which they
boasted, they knew not God. “Professing to be wise, they became fools “, and,
being left to themselves as devoid of understanding, they died and perished
like the beasts (Psa. xlix. 12, 20).
Such is the fate of all
who die without an understanding of the truth revealed for the faith of their
generation. He that understands the truth but declines the obedience it commands, will be held accountable for its
rejection; for “ he that believeth not shall be condemned “ “in a day of
judgment “, (see footnote) “when the Deity shall judge the secrets of men by
Jesus Christ, according to the gospel ‘ Paul preached (Rom. ii. 16 ; Mark xvi.
16).
But, sinners
understanding and believing the truth, and rendering the obedience it
commands, in that enlightened and faithful obedience, become saints. As such,
they have received the truth as a sacred deposit, for the use or abuse of which
they are held responsible in the great day of account (Jude 6). Saints, who
use the truth aright, styled by James “ doers of the Word, and not hearers only
“, are the “just “ or “righteous “ ; but saints who abuse it, being hearers
only of the Word and not doers, lovers of the world and the things that are in
it, striving at once to serve God and Mammon, are the “ungodly” and the “unjust
“, who, like Esau, sell their birthright for a morsel of the world’s meat; to
whom, in the judgment, will be found no place for repentance, sought ever so
carefully with tears (Heb. xii. 16-17). -
*
footnote The Unamended Christadelphians
believe that only those who have made a covenant this God by sacrifice will be
called to the judgment see Article XXV of the Unamended Statement of Faith (ed)
page
35
These three classes are
indicated by Peter in the words, “ If the righteous
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear ? “ (1
Epist. iv. 18) : the enlightened sinner, who rejects the truth the ungodly, who disgraces it ; and the righteous, who do it. Add to these a fourth
class constituted of unenlightened sinners, among whom, and into whom,
the light has not shined and cannot shine, from whatever cause, and the whole
race of Adam is marshalled, or arranged in due or scriptural order before the
mind.
Now, would it be
reasonable to subject unenlightened sinners, illuminated sinners, and ungodly
Sardian saints, to one and the same condition? The Righteous Judge is not” a
hard man, reaping where he hath not sown “. Where the Word hath not been sown,
He will look for no result; but, on the contrary, where He has made proclamation
by “ faithful men, able to teach others “, whose teaching He has borne witness
to “by signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and distributions of Holy
Spirit “, which is “ preaching the gospel with Holy Spirit sent down from
heaven” (Heb. ii. 4; 1 Pet. i. 12), He expects to reap and gather in. This is
just and reasonable, as well as scriptural. And as “ no man can come to me “,
saith the Spirit, “ except the Father who hath sent me draw him “, he will not
raise them up in the last day upon whom the drawing influence of the word has
not been brought to bear (John vi. 44). They are “ as the beasts that perish “.
But illuminated sinners and Sardian saints are
obnoxious to a perdition arrived at in different ways. These are they” who obey
not the Gospel of the Deity” (1 Pet. iv. 17), or disgrace it ; and who come
forth to anastasis of judicial
condemnation. These two classes are punished on the principle that “it is
better not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known
it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them “ (2 Pet. ii. 21). In
the apostolic age, this holy commandment was delivered with power descending
from heaven ; but now, there is no such sanction confirming a faithful
teacher’s exposition of the word Nevertheless a sinner come to the understanding
of the truth, the result being the same he is held accountable An enlightened sinner
cannot evade the consequences his illumination.
I have known some of this class flatter themselves that they would not be
called forth to judgment; but would perish with the beasts, if they did not
come under the law to Christ Such reasoning however is simply “deceitfulness of
sin” When Jesus preached the Gospel of
the Kingdom to this class in Israel, among whom were the self-righteous Scribes,
Pharisees, lawyers, and priests, he told them that, in the judgment, He will
say to all workers of iniquity, “ Depart from me !“ And then he added, “there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when YE shall see Abraham, and Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of the Deity, and you yourselves
thrust out. And they shall come
Page 36
from the east and the west, and from the north
and the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of the Deity. And behold,
there are last who shall he first, and there are first who shall be last (Luke
xiii. 28). This evidently teaches their anastasis
kriseos, or coming forth from sheol, for
judicial condemnation and punishment, contemporarily with the establishment of
the kingdom in the Holy Land.
But whatever the
details of their punishment may be, the evils befalling ungodly Sardian saints
will be more intense. Both classes will “ of the flesh reap corruption “ but
the post-resurrectional antecedents of the one leading to this common fate,
will be ‘ sorer than those of the
other. So Paul teaches in Heb. x. 26, saying, ‘ If we sin willfully after that
we have the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment (xxxxç) and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses’ law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses
of how much sorer punishment, suppose
ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of the
Deity, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace ? “ This “
sorer punishment awaits all saints, who, like the majority in Sardis, lived in
name, while they were dead in fact—” twice dead, and plucked up by the roots”
(Jude 12).
But some will inquire,
What about Catholics and Protestants of
all “ Names and Denominations “ of piety in “ Christendom “ so-called? To
what class do these belong? Under what times do these of our day and generation
live? These, with the followers of Mohammed for a torment, are the all nations
of modern times, upon which has been entailed “a strong delusion that they
should believe the lie “, invented for them by a remote ancestry that
apostatized from the truth. The Deity sent this “ strong delusion “ upon their
unfaithful ancestors as a punishment for not receiving the truth in the love of
it : and, foreseeing that their posterity would “ have pleasure in
unrighteousness “, He permitted the” strong delusion “ to inebriate the
peoples of Daniel’s fourth beast dominion and to reign over them, until he
should send Jesus Christ to dispel it with the spirit of his mouth, and the
brightness, or manifestation, of his presence (2 Thess. ii. 8-12). These
nations, like all the heathen at the birth of Christ, are all under times of
helpless ignorance being so strongly deluded that their minds are impervious to
the testimony of Scripture and reason, which are the only instrumentality
extant for the enlightenment and salvation of sinners. If one show them the
truth, the Deity does not now endorse the teaching by a manifestation of power.
Hence, every thing is resolved into opinion; and as one man’s Opinion is said
to be as good as another’s, the idea of certainty is ignored. The case of our
modern world is helpless, hopeless,
Page 37
and incurable, by anything short of the presence
of Christ. The times of this event are predetermined and revealed. Until then,
“times of ignorance “obtain, and the nations are” suffered to walk in their own
ways “. These denominational ways are apocalyptically labeled, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of HARLOTS,
and ABOMINATIONS of the Earth “. These are the ecclesiastical ways of death, making,
in the aggregate, “the unmeasured Court which is without the Temple, given to
the Gentiles” (Rev. xi. 2). In none of “the
names” of the Gentiles is there any life, nor anything to make men
accountable. Clergy and people are all unenlightened
sinners, by whatever “name” they
may be called. They are “condemned already”; and however popular and honored by
the world, being without understanding of the truth, they are like the beasts
which perish (Psa. xlix. 20).
But have they not got
the Scriptures; are not these sufficient to make them accountable? It is true
they have them; and so had Ptolemy Philadeiphus, king of Egypt; but they
understand them no better than he. They “err
not knowing the Scriptures “, as the old Sadducees did. How can they
understand them, judicially blinded as they are by the” strong delusion “ ? Would
it be reasonable to put a book of any kind into the hand of a confirmed sot,
trembling with delirium in his cups, and to expect him to read and expound it?
The Scriptures testify that all the inhabitants of the apocalyptic earth “have
been made drunk with the wine of the
fornication “, of what the people themselves style, “the Mother of all Churches
“, as drunken as they (Rev. xvii. 2, 6; xviii. 3). Their blind and misleading
clergy are more studious of Shakespeare, and of the dark-minded poets of Greece
and Rome, than of the oracles of the Deity; so that their sayings and doings
are more suggestive of the heathen sentiments of Plato and Horace, than of the
prophets and apostles of the Lamb. And, if the national and dissenting
clergies, who have so much time for the study of the Word, fall so miserably
short of comprehending it, what can be expected of their strongly deluded
followers, all of whose labour is for the bread which perisheth? The Bible is a
sealed book to them all. Then, of what use is it in the matter of salvation? In
the hands of “faithful men able to teach others “, it is primarily and
principally the Father’s instrumentality, whereby, in “the times of the
Gentiles “, He “ draws “from among them as many of them as He has given to His
Son for eternal life; and secondarily, it is a moralizer of society: and so it
is written, “they shall be all taught of the Deity. Every man, therefore, that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh “, saith
Jesus, “unto me “ (John vi. 45; xvii. 2).
But, in conclusion of
this important subject, what may be said of “the
time of the dead “, that they should be judged, and that the reward should
be given to the servants of Deity, the prophets, and to
Page 38
the saints, and to them that fear His name, small
and great ? Of that I one, When a wonder ’
done to the dead ; and the Healed among them shall praise Him ? (Psa.
lxxxviii. 10) .* In answer to this enquiry, the approaching fall of the Papal
Throne admonishes us that it is Very near. The Papal power is that element of
the Little Horn represented in Dan, vii. 8, by “ Eyes like the eyes of a man,
anti a Mouth speaking great things. In
verse 21, the Mouth is said to speak “ very great things “ ; and the look of
the Eyes is said also to give the horn in which they are set, a stouter,
bolder, or more audacious aspect than its fellow ten horns. John describes this
same Mouth in Rev, xiii. 2. He there styles it, the Mouth of the Beast as the
mouth of a lion : which lion is Daniel’s symbol of the Power of Babylon In verses 5 and 6 he says that this Babylonian
Mouth speaks great things and blasphemies against Deity, to blaspheme His
name, and His tabernacle, and them who dwell in heaven. The Mouth being
associated with the Eyes, represents the blasphemer as Episcopal, To this Blasphemous Bishop were given his power, anti
his throne, and great authority, by a decree of the
Constantinopolitan power, styled by John “ the
Dragon ‘‘. By the power given, he was
enabled to make war upon the saints and to overcome them , by the throne given, he was enabled to
establish himself in Rome and by the great
authority’ given he was enabled to assume spiritual jurisdiction “over all
the kindreds and tongues and nations of Daniel’s fourth beast dominion, But
this Roman Pontificate was not intended by Deity to be eternal. He told John
that its authorized continuance should be ‘‘forty-and-two
‘‘ symbolic ‘‘ months “ a period
equal to 1,260 years from the time when the power, throne, and authority were
decreed to the Blasphemer. These were decreed to him in the epoch AD 606-608 : which, in the current epoch
1866-186 is the end of the required period of 1,260 years.
Now, it was told Daniel
that the saints should he given into the hand, or power, of this episcopal and
blasphemous horn ‘ until a time, times,
and the dividing of time ‘‘ which is a period equal to John’s “ forty and
two months “. They cannot be subject to him when he ceases to reign. Their
subjection to him, and his reign or supremacy,
necessarily terminated’ in the sane epoch. Hence, the fall of the Papal sovereignty will be the rise of the saints ‘
that is to say, the next series of events will develop their resurrection ;
when judgment will be given to “ the called anti chosen and faithful
*In this verse of the
English version the word dead occurs
twice but, in the original it is not one and the same word. In the first
instance, it is (xxx) DEADONES, without distinction of class, in the second, it
is (xxxx), Healerd Ones or the just
who are ‘‘ clothed upon with the house from heaven
+ The Papal throne has
since fallen: Anastasis was written in 1866
page 38
who, with Christ, the Ancient of Days, “ will
take away his dominion “, in all its relations, “ to consume and destroy it to
the end “.
The apocalyptic “
To this sketch of Papal
constitution, it may be added that the Austrian Power by ‘‘ concordat ‘‘ with the Roman Pontifical,
or Spiritual Power, is the imperio—civil, secular and military element of
Daniel’s Little Horn (ch. viii.) and symbolized by John, in Rev. xiii. 2, by a
beast with two horns like a lamb, and speaking as a dragon. In this chapter, as
a whole, symbolical of a European Constitution in Church and State, the Eyes
and Mouth, or Spiritual Element of the power, are represented by ‘‘ .AN IMAGE
‘‘. The Spiritual Power would not have been able to sustain itself by its own
force in such a world as this. It would have perished long ago amid the clash
of arms. In order, therefore, to perpetuate its existence ‘‘ until the words of
Deity be fulfilled ‘‘, Deity caused the Roman Pontifical to be allied by
Concordat with the Austrian Power ‘‘ for there is no power but of God : and the
powers that be are ordained of him ‘‘ (Rom. xiii.
I). This political concordat, or agreement,
constituted
His Apostolic Majesty “ of
Page 40
and